Using The Combat Track - Attacking and Evading

After having posted the combat track up for download i thought i might go over an example of how it's used.  Much of this goes over the rules in the Mechanics - Combat download, but also included pictures for reference.

The Combat Track is a simple tool used to keep track of relevant combat details during a round. Basically it is a ruler, but instead of measuring distance it keeps track of difficulties, poise values, and how much an attack has been boosted. This can be especially useful when using combos for keeping track of the current poise of an enemy.

Using the Combat Track to Make Attacks

After spending the stamina to make an attack move or combo, place a marker along the track at the number needed to hit for the attack move being used.

The To Hit Value Needed For This Attack Move is 6

Then place a second marker at the value that indicates the target's poise value. 

The Value Needed to Stagger This Target Is 9

If you wish to spend any stamina to boost the attack, place your stamina tokens starting at 1 and proceeding up the track. 

This Player has spent 3 points of available stamina to boost this attack
placing them on the stamina boost track

Roll a d8 and place it a number of spaces equal to the value rolled past the last stamina token on the stamina boost track. 

The D8 Rolls a result of 4, so is placed 4 spaces beyond the stamina spent to boost
3 stamina plus a roll of 4 lands the d8 at space 7

If the die is directly below or passes the target number it hits.  If the result of the die roll places the die directly below or beyond the stagger die, the target is both hit and staggered for the rest of the round!

The results of the die roll indicate that the attack Hit, but was not high enough to stagger the target

In the case of making a combo, for each move in the combo beyond the first slide the poise marker down by one,  

For the second attack in the combo the poise of the target is reduced by 1 down to 8
this makes the target easier to stagger

readjust the difficulty if necessary for the next move in the combo and repeat the above process.

The second move in this combo is harder to hit with, so the to hit marker was set to 7.
4 stamina was then spent to boost the attack after which a 5 was rolled on the d8
the final position of the d8 is 9 which both hits and staggers the target!

If a target becomes staggered, any subsequent attacks that target them automatically hit!

Using the Combat Track to Evade Attacks

The combat track can also be used to simplify the process of being attacked over a round.

At the start of an enemy round, or the first time being attacked in a round, place a marker on the space indicating your character's Poise value

This Character's Poise Value is 7

When being attacked, your opponent will force you to roll a number of evasion dice.  These dice range from d4's all the way up to a d20's.  The higher the number of sides on a die, the harder the attack is to evade.  Once the evasion die being rolled has been determined count the number of sides on the die and spend one point of stamina.  Place the point of spent stamina on the stamina boost track equal to the number of sides on the evasion die. ie 6 for a d6

The attack being evaded is a d6, the die has 6 sides,
 so the character spends a single point of stamina to evade, placing it in space 6

Now you may choose to spend further stamina, placing them on the boost track to the left of the initial stamina token.  Each point of stamina spent will make it easier to evade the incoming attack.

This Character has spent 3 additional points of stamina to try and evade the incoming attack
in total this character has spent 4 stamina so far

After boosting your evade with stamina, roll the evasion die.  The number of stamina spent creates a "safe zone", if the evasion die rolls equal to any values corresponding to a stamina point, the attack is evaded and does no damage.  Successfully evading an attack allows the character to immediately make a free maneuver possibly taking the character out of range of further attacks.

The Evasion Die rolled a 4,
the attack is evaded as there is also a point of stamina in location 4,
no damage is taken and the character makes a free maneuver

Being hit by enemy attacks reduces your ability to maintain a steady defense. Each time you are hit by an enemy's attack, reduce your poise on the track by 1 point.

After being hit by an enemy attack the character reduces their poise from 7 to 6
if the evasion die rolls a 6 or greater on a subsequent attack the character will be staggered.

Follow the above steps for evading subsequent attacks.  If the evasion die ever rolls high enough to reach or exceed the character's poise, the character will be staggered. (see being staggered below)

This character spends 4 stamina to evade the attack with a poise of 4,
The evasion die rolls a 6, exceeding the character's poise, staggering them,
 however they still successfully evade this attack as the 6 space is also occupied by a stamina point.
The character makes their free maneuver and and is then staggered for the rest of the round.

If a character cannot spend stamina to evade an attack, or chooses not to, the character may try to block the attack, adding extra protection of a shield or a weapon against the damage of an incoming attack. In this case roll the evasion die anyways to determine if the character is staggered or not.

This time the character was attacked but could not spend any stamina to evade so choses to block instead.
The character currently has a poise of 6 and the evasion die rolls a 3,
 the character is hit and takes damage reduced by their protection
The character is not staggered however as the evasion die did not roll 6 or greater

Staggered

Being staggered is not a good situation for a character to be in.  The staggered condition lasts till the end of the round and affects the character in the following ways:

     - The Character is automatically hit by attacks

     - The Character may not evade attacks

     - The Character may not block attacks
     - The Character may still roll for Luck

Luck

Sometimes luck will intervene in unexpected ways, 

When being attacked, before rolling an evasion die, roll a luck test.  If the test passes the attack misses and the die is discarded.  This does not count as evading the attack, but prevents all potential effects of it.